TEHRAN – The 12th edition of the orange blossom festival opened on Friday in the northern city of Babol, Mazandaran province, an official with Babol Municipality has said.  

Folk music performances, poetry recitations, and cooking contests will all be part of the one-week festival, Morteza Omrani said on Saturday. 

On the sidelines of the festival, several workshops are organized on orange blossom benefits and features, the official added. 

Sandwiched between the towering Alborz mountain range and the Caspian Sea, Mazandaran has a rich yet turbulent history. An early civilization flourished at the beginning of the first millennium BC in Mazandaran (Tabarestan).

Its insecure eastern and southeastern borders were crossed by Mongol invaders in the 13th and 14th centuries. Cossacks attacked the region in 1668 but were repulsed. It was ceded to the Russian Empire by a treaty in 1723, but the Russians were never secure in their occupation. The area was restored to Iran under the Qajar dynasty.

The northern section of the region consists of lowland alongside the Caspian and upland along the northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains. Marshy backlands dominate the coastal plain, and extensive gravel fans fringe the mountains. The climate is permanently subtropical and humid, with very hot summers.

ABU/AM